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TheWhiteDragon
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« on: February 19, 2012, 01:22:44 pm » |
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First off, I'd like to thank the competition for a great time. Wish the turn out could have been better, but a lack of advertising will do that. This tourney was a blast though, so that's all that really matters. It's always great when you can get in some epic rounds of card slinging and crush a worthy opponent.
It started like a scene from a Edgar Allen Poe story, the rain pounding fiercely on the roof as I awoke to claps of thunder. I knew it was a sign, that I would bring torrents of doom onto the opposition. I awoke and mulled the potential list that I would play in the tournament that morning. A 10am start to what would be a grueling day began with a bowl of blueberry and banana instant oatmeal - the breakfast of true champions. I sipped on some strong coffee to alert my brain - I'd surely need the mental edge throughout the day. I packed my gear with a couple binders of cards to trade in my backpack and gave my list one last look to be sure I didn't need any last minute tweaks. I was pretty happy with the list, and it took first, so it was obviously solid. I didn't know what to expect from the meta, so I made it as well-rounded as possible. For reference, here it is:
// Lands
1 City of Brass
1 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Mountain
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
// Creatures
2 Goblin Welder
1 Blightsteel Colossus
2 Gorilla Shaman (2)
3 Trygon Predator
// Spells
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Memory Jar
1 [BD] Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Fact or Fiction
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
1 Grafdigger's Cage
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Trygon Predator
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Nature's Claim
SB: 2 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 2 Old Man of the Sea
SB: 1 Darkblast
SB: 1 Inkwell Leviathan
The deck plays amazingly and has a ton of outs. The control elements are fairly astounding as you can see. The welders are great as BSC defense, can wreck shops if I can counter/shaman an artifact, and have mad synergy with FoF -> jar/vault/key/top/cage (and inkwell after board for fish). A neat trick is dropping cage early to block tinker/dredge/oath, then welding it out for something good or using yawg will...or tinkering it away for my own BSC. I tend to drop my hand fast, so there is no LoA, but the strip mine helps stop opposing LoAs as well as hitting shops/bazaars.
Anyways, back to the day at hand...
I got dressed in my lucky "faces of Vader" shirt, sure to strike fear in the heart of my opponent. The force was strong with me as I sleeved up my deck. I felt confident I'd walk away with the win, and at the very least was sure I'd make the finals. I made the uneventful journey to the venue and saw my name on a placard at the table. There sat my opponent, waiting for me. We shook hands and wished each other good luck. I admit, I was intimidated. I had met her many times before in this arena, and my record was not so good against her. But today would be different. Today, I would have victory.
I was surprised that she offered to start the day with an ID. I thought it was the smart move though, and we both drew to start the day. I felt my chances of getting into the top were just as good, if not better, by not suffering an early loss to her. We took the time to chat and we decided to do some trading while the rest of the hour-long round ticked away. I made some mad trades and pwned the crud out of her, making off with some chase rares and legacy staples for a bunch of standard garbage and foil lands! What a noob!
Anyways, time was called and they called pairings. WTH...I got paired against her again! What luck. It was the finals after all, and we had both earned our way to the top with a strategic ID to start the day. I took my seat again, the same table that started it all, ironically, and nervously shuffled my deck. I started off cool and collected, but this broad just intimidates the crud out of me every time. She's got mad card slinging skills. We cut each other's decks and wished each other luck yet again.
G1: I open with lotus, sapphire, tolarian, tinker, time walk, fow, misstep - GOD HAND! I didn't even need to pitch for FoW and won on the spot. Go VINTAGE! I thought I saw a tear well in her eye as she felt the victory of the day slipping from her clutches.
G2: I really don't remember much. it was a flurry of brutality and i got my butt handed to me on a platter. My counters only held off the inevitable, and she pulled out tech, I didn't even imagine. it was merciless, but luckily I started G3.
G3: We fanned out our hand of 7, and I immediately had to mulligan with no lands. What a way to start the finals - frwnz. My 6 was keepable though, and I could tell in her eyes that her hand of 7 was imposing. I tried to stare her down and do some mind-gaming, but my brain felt like it went 12 rounds with a non-medicated Tyson within seconds. She's got mind-games down cold.
I open with a hand of delta, city, fof, dt, jace, cage. I was wary of going to 5 and knew I could drop a turn 1 cage on the play. I didn't know what I was facing due to our ID, and short G1. I didn't see much of her deck G2, other than it was fast and brutal. I was suspecting of a transformational board too as she shuffled in all 15 cards and removed 15 from her pile, but I felt it was a safe start. I played delta, cracked for island (in case of wasteland) and dropped cage. She grimaced ever so slightly, and I knew I made a good move.
She drew and dropped a foily forest, then passed. "She must be on transformational oath!" I thought, knowing why she didn't like the look of my cage.
I drew for my turn and drew MANA DRAIN! Excellent! I dropped my city (confident she didn't have waste) and sat on my drain mana, hoping to sink into a jace next turn.
She drew and played an island, tapped and cast killer bees. WTF! "Judge!" I shouted, explaining to her that she needed another green for that. She apologized and retracted it, dropping a grizzly bears. BAM! I drained, getting the 2 mana I'd need for Jace!
I draw LOTUS! I tapped city to DT for Tinker using 1 drain mana. I felt confident she didn't have FoW or she would have stopped my drain. I drop lotus, and then hesitate for a moment, hoping i'm not walking into a mindbreak trap. No guts no glory though, so I balls-to-the wall crack lotus to sac cage to pull up the infected monstrosity that crushed her G1. I sweat a bit, thinking she might be holding Hurkyll's, thus letting it resolve.
She draws and plays another island. I'm really nervous now. What will she do? Wipe away? Etruth? Hurkyll's? Drop a mox and sower? Drop a mox and her own tinker? I bite my lip waiting. She looks at my eyes, then looks at her hand. She slowly turns her lands, taps them, untaps them...hesitates. Then she taps all three definitively and plucks a card from her hand, slapping it on the table.
Whew! It's only tidal influence!
I draw mox ruby, drop it, and swing for the victory!
It was a heart-pounding event and I was happy to take away the top prize. My opponent smacked my hand as I reached out to shake hers. That was unsportsmanlike, I thought, and was the down-point of the event. Needless to say she got time-out. As she walked out the door, and I closed the door to my garage behind me, I shouted "better luck next time!" with glee I couldn't conceal in my voice. When I got into my kitchen, I cracked open a well-deserved Miller Lite and pondered why she was so scared of my grafdigger cage. I determined it was because she's only 3, and can't read yet, so she probably didn't know what it did. i took a swig of my cold, carbonated beer and smiled. It tasted like victory!
Again, props to my daughter who was half of the field, myself being the other. Hopefully, she'll attend future tournaments...I'll get her a new doll as a bribe maybe.
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